FEMOSPHERE

I am challenging myself to post every Monday in January for a little series I’m calling “Motivation Monday.” It will be an article focused on a self-help topic that has helped me and is something I want to expand on.

Building on last Monday’s Motivation Monday post, I want to talk about longevity. This is something I’ve considered for so long but haven’t been able to find much content that aligns with this concept.

I think sustainability or longevity is one of the most important aspects of fitness that aren’t talked about. As I’ve covered previously, when you start something that is intended to be a lifestyle change, we tend to set high goals for ourselves.

Maybe you’re going from never going to the gym to saying you’ll go 4x a week. Or saying you’ll be getting 10,000 steps a day, but you’re very sedentary currently.

It’s not only important to be real with yourself, a topic I’ve covered here, but it’s also important to make sure that the lifestyle you’re living is sustainable. If you intend to be able to maintain a habit it needs to be sustainable, and you need to be flexible.

If your goal is to live a healthy lifestyle, that’s not just a goal for 22-year-old you, it should be sustainable for long-term. And sometimes those social media trends, aren’t actually sustainable for a long, healthy life.

I think of fad diets and diet pills, they’re so many people that fall for them. There’s a ton of people who lose and gain, lose and gain, because the way they lost the first time wasn’t sustainable.

It’s not all about being skinnier, it’s about feeling better, aging well, being healthier, mobility, developing self-respect and discipline.

If you’re just trying to “get skinny” there’s so many ways that you can achieve “skinny” and months later gain all of the weight back. It’s important that, for whatever lifestyle change you’re making- fitness or otherwise, you’re able to maintain it long term.

A lifestyle change will carry over through different times of your life. Maybe what you’ve got going works for you right now, but will you be able to adapt when life gets in the way? Is it something you can keep up for long periods of time?

It’s okay for something to be a “just right now” type of thing, but if you’re aiming for a lifestyle, question if you’re able to sustain it.